- You’ll gain this quest by perusing the Notice Board just south of the Redanian Border. If you haven’t visited the area before, it’s the small island to the north of where you start in Velen, and it’s surrounded by refugees in crappy little tents.

- The Contract will point you to the Captain of the Border, who just happens to be standing about five feet away. The dude gets to the point pretty quickly. He’ll then send you to look at the spot where a caravan was attacked by the monster. It’s to the southwest a fair ways.

- The trip to the attack site is pretty harmless. You’ll find two Alghouls waiting by the ruined cart that more than make up for the lack of danger, however, and you’ll want to watch out for their area attacks. Once they’re gone, whip out your Witcher Senses and inspect the scene. There’s a bloodstain, a box, a corpse leaning against a cart, and footprints. These last are a little ways northeast of the cart, and will lead you out of the area.

- Follow the footprints. They lead out of the woods and over to a shallow sandbar, where a sizeable group of Drowners wait. Draw them to you one-at-a-time, if you can, to avoid being overwhelmed. Check the hill they’d congregated around previously to find more footprints, then follow the footprints up to a tree at the top of the hill for a cut scene.

- The cut scene reveals the monster to not be a monster, but a Scoia’tael. He’ll demand you lay down your arms, and he’ll agree to take you to his leader. You have a few different options past this point.

If you agree to lay down your swords you’ll be taken to their commander. She’ll demand you give up and leave. Agree and she’ll give you some items.

If you agree to see the commander but refuse to back down you’ll have to fight the Scoia’tael - and you’ll do it without your swords. This can be quite difficult unarmed, though lots of dodging, healing, punching, and sign work will, eventually, win the day. The leader is particularly easy to take down with punches if you manage to somehow stun her first, though you'll probably have to leave her until last. Check the camp over for a lot of weapons, including your own swords. Check one of the bodies for a Squirrel Tail to take back to the Captain, as well.

If you refuse to lay down your swords a band of Scoia’tael will attack. They’re quite powerful, as they have a hearty mix of swords and bows, and they come at you quite promptly. Use signs to knock them off guard immediately, then go for the bowmen as quickly as you can. Once they’re gone - or at least once they’ve swapped to swords - you can proceed with melee combat. Still hard, but not quite as hard.

- Return to the Captain regardless of your choice. If you killed the Scoia’tael you’ll receive 30 gold and a Letter of Safe Conduct from the Captain. You can also warn him about the Scoia’tael if you promised not to rat them out and get the same reward, though the elven commander will, at some point, ambush you in the future. If you choose to lie to the man on behalf of the elves you’ll get no reward beyond what you got from the Scoia’tael. Quest over no matter how you proceeded.